Taiwan Creative Content Fest: five projects to watch from 2024 edition

The Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), which starts today [November 5], has put together a record 62 projects from 21 countries for its Pitching session, which will be vying for a record prize pool of $240,000 (NT$7.65m).

Following the inclusion of international productions last year, this year’s event has received nearly 600 project submissions from 50 countries, which were evaluated by a panel of international industry executives.

The 62 shortlisted projects comprise 42 projects from the Project to Screen section, which is divided into four categories – feature films, series, animation and documentaries; and 20 projects from the Story to Screen section, a showcase of Taiwanese original published books and comics that have the potential for film and TV adaptation.

A total of 35 awards will be presented by private entities and international film festivals, including new awards from CJ ENM HK, Blintn, ADATA Technology, First Bank, Genesis Wave Film, ZW ENM, Shoei Contents Corporation, and Philippines’ QCinema Project Market.

Among the grand prizes are TAICCA X CNC Award, which offers a cash prize of $30,000, Chunghwa Telecom Award ($18,800/NT$600,000) as well as TAICCA Award for best story, MyVideo Initiative Award and friDAY Video Original Story Award, all of which offers $9,400 (NT$300,000) each.

TCCF is organised by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), running from November 5-8 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center this year. Screen profiles five projects to watch out for from Project to Screen below.

Cubs (Indo)
Dir: Riri Riza
Executive producers: Mira Lesmana
Prod: Ifa Isfansyah
Production companies: Forka Films, Miles Films
Budget: $1m ($250,000 secured) 

This social drama film, which blends crime and action genres with a coming-of age narrative, focuses on the growth of a teenager as he confronts a greedy gold mining tycoon when a cleric and an escort girl are found dead. The filmmakers aim to shoot in 16mm and on location in a real gold mining town in the Java region along with the use of both amateur and professional actors. This will mark the 18^th feature film by prolific director Riri whose works screened in Berlinale, Tokyo and Rotterdam and included many box office hits such as 2023’s Sherina’s Adventure 2. While Mira has produced all his films through Jakarta-based Miles Films, Ifa who produced Berlinale-winning Before, Now & Then and co-directed Netflix period series Cigarette Girl, is producing for Riri for the first time. 
Contact: Ifa Isfansyah, Forka Films

Fly (Fr-Tai)
Writer: Chang Kuo-Li
Prods: Julien Deris, David Gauquié, Renan Artukmaç, Hsieh Yi-lin
Production companies: Cinefrance Studios, Yoosonn Entertainment
Budget: $6m ($50,000 secured)

This international drama series is a modern treasure-hunting crime thriller that takes places from France to Taiwan. It follows a French policewoman who teams up with a French-Taiwanese man, the protector of an ancient imperial seal, to locate the missing treasure, before the Chinese or Taiwanese governments gets their hands on it. The project is created by Taiwanese acclaimed writer Chang Kuo-Li, former editor-in-chief of The China Times Weekly and recipient of major literary awards who has over 60 published works from poetry, screenplays to novels including The Sniper, which is being adapted into film. It is developed by France’s Cinefrance Studios with Taiwan’s Yoosonn Entertainment as co-producer. The producers plan to hire a duo of French and Taiwanese directors for the project, which has no director attached to it yet.
Contact: Renan Artukmaç, Cinefrance Studios

Kaminari (Japan)
Dir: Mako Kamitsuna
Prods: Makoto Kakurai, Sanjay Sharma
Production companies: Bandai Namco Filmworks
Budget: $2m ($400,000 secured) 

Set in post-war Hiroshima, this political crime thriller film revolves around a young physician for atomic bomb survivors, a yakuza boss and a ramen joint owner whose shared past from war-time Manchuria returns to haunt them when a letter arrives from Germany, threatening to expose their long-held secrets. Inspired by director Kamitsuna’s late grandfather’s diary about his experiences in Manchuria, the story explores a historical period rarely explored on film. The production team plans to recreate the interior scenes in a studio and is looking to seek partnership with production facilities in Asia. Director Kamitsuna who was born in the US and raised in Hiroshima started out as an editor, winning Sundance’s special jury award for best editing for We Are X. She is also a consulting producer on FX Network’s Shogun.
Contact: Makoto Kakurai, Bandai Namco Filmworks

Nomads of the Island (HK-Tai)
Dir: Frankie Sin
Executive producers: Stefano Centini, Huang Hui-Chen, Peter Yam
Prods: Stefano Centini
Production companies: Volos Films
Budget: $150,000 ($11,000 secured) 

Hong Kong-born Taiwanese director Sin has recently won Busan’s Mecenat Award for best documentary for his non-narrative debut feature Another Home, which is set in his hometown Cheung Chau, an outlying island of Hong Kong. In his latest documentary project Nomads Of The Island, he explores further the meaning of home and identity. His ancestors were fishermen until his grandfather settled on Cheung Chau, ending generations of nomadic life at sea. Sin then left Hong Kong and drifted to a different island, Taiwan, 14 years ago, mirroring the displaced people from the Hong Kong diaspora. Centini, Huang and Yam, all of whom award-winning filmmakers, have worked with Sin on Another Home.
Contact: Chiu Ping-yu, Volos Films

Pontianaks In Taiwan (Sing-Tai)
Dir: Goh Ming Siu
Prods: Goh Ming Siu, Karl Gan, Holly Chan
Production companies: Monkey & Boar, Great Kings Entertainment, Neverland Entertainment
Budget: $1.75m ($100,000 secured) 

This horror-comedy mini-series tracks the road trip of two Pontianaks (undead bloodthirsty women from local folklore similar to female vampires in Western culture) who will soon be homeless in Singapore due to redevelopment. They get themselves into dangerous yet hilarious adventures with new friends and enemies when they travel to Taiwan to look for a new place to call home. It will be a cross-cultural and multi-lingual show, featuring two actresses of Malay ethnicity who speak Mandarin as their characters navigate a new land with familiar faces from Taiwan’s entertainment industry. Singapore-based Goh has written and directed over 100 episodes of primetime TV in all genres in Singapore and has also co-directed horror feature Repossession. Taiwan’s Holly Chan previously produced 2022’s Mad Doctor, winner of four Golden Bell Awards including best TV series.
Contact: Neverland Entertainment neverland13m@gmail.com

• TAICCA’s Homme Tsai on what to expect from 2024 Taiwan Creative Content Fest